Daisy Squires

It’s simply undeniable—you meet any member of the Squires family and you fall instantly in love. They radiate joy, and always make you feel as though you are a part of their clan. My relationship with Daisy began shortly after she designed my face, using the style that is so uniquely her own. As we emailed each other back and forth, I quickly came to understand her: pure, genuine, and simply darling.

I chatted with the angel that is Daisy Squires about being a young entrepreneur, zoning out of digital reality and, my favourite topic, self love.

You and your friend Louis have brought out the incredible book Ben, The Boy Who Paints His Nails. What an achievement, and such a beautiful message. 

Whose idea was it to create the book? 

Louis and I would always go to coffee and create all these crazy little ideas. The book was the first one that we were like hell yeah, let’s actually do it! It fit his [idea] of wanting to write a children’s book and I could do the graphics. We started speaking about all these ideas and he was like “Right, I’m going to go home and I’m going to write it!” I went ‘round maybe like a week later and he just smashed it! I sat in the kitchen and told him that he had to read it out to me. It all came from this incident that he had on the train—he had his nails painted, he always paints his nails— and this little boy turned to his dad and said oh, I want to paint my nails! They went and had a chat and Louis [said that he] should embrace it. So it was all based on this chat that he had—he wrote it, read it to me and I loved it so much. It has little poems in it and it’s quite lengthy, it’s quite a long book but it’s good. Once I had the story, I could then do the pictures for it, so it was a little collaboration. 

Amazing! So from inception to end product, it was about a year? 

Yeah! Probably...it was funny, we created the book and I had an event and our friend Trent was there as well. He was telling me how he likes to publish books and things on the side, and I was like sorry, you like publishing books on the side? What does that even mean?! He told me that his mum works in a library and that she and Trent’s sister and him all write little children’s books and just put them on Amazon—just as a little family thing, so cute. That’s when I was like well...and then told him the story [about the book] and he said that [he’d love to get involved]. We all grew up together, had similar friendship groups but still kinda distant and then we were like alright, let’s do it! We all caught up for coffee and then it was straight on from there! 

So yeah, we’ve created our little trio. After I finished the drawings and we got in contact with printers, we set up a kick-starter and we had our friends film our little kick-starter video to show everybody what we were all about and what our mission was. We ended up raising over $10,000. It was amazing! All within the space of about a year. 

And you had a launch party to celebrate its release! Can you tell me a bit about that? 

Of course! Louis went around when he was back from Sydney for a bit and started dropping off [copies of the book] to different stores that we’d spoken to. This beautiful woman—one of the ladies that runs Page 8 book shop in Hampton Street—she’d read it and she was like this is exactly like something I would’ve wanted when I was a little girl, and something that we all need. She spoke about it in such a beautiful way and then she asked us if she could hold the launch there. It was a room full of all the people that had supported us with our kick-starter, and then our friends. It was the first time that [what we were doing] felt professional. Like, we were sitting down and people were there for us and we had champagne and our book was on the shelf—that was the craziest thing for me. I was like what the hell! There were so many books in this room and ours was on the shelf. After such a long time, that was such an achievement for us. She then got up and said a few words before we spoke, and the way she spoke about it—it was so lovely for someone so outside of all that this was to say what she did. It made us feel like we’d really achieved something. I think that, amongst other things, has made us feel that we’ve done something so great. 

After she spoke, Louis did a little reading of a passage and then we both thanked everybody. They had a nail painting station—all these little boys and girls were getting their nails done. One of my best friends Millie was painting the nails. It was like a big love-fest! You could feel like love and community in the room that day. 

That’s so beautiful! However, you were saying before that you did experience some backlash; some parents that may not be aligned with the message that you guys are putting forward... 

Yes. We had, on a few different radio stations—when we pitched our book and the title was brought up—a few parents called in and were like “no, we don’t need a book like this” and some assumed that it was about a boy discovering his sexuality, which I don’t see why that could be oh so bad, but don’t we love a good stereotype! I think that gave us more of a reason to bring the book out, and it gave us more fire to stand up to this sort of negativity and idea some people had around the book. When you read it you realise that it’s a very innocent and loving book—the message is about people embracing their individuality and being their authentic selves, not hiding away because of gender norms or what you feel society pressures you to do or be. Obviously we want to touch on ideas of sexuality because kids should be able to embrace their individuality, but it’s all about being who they really are, that’s also why we’ve titled ourself The Be You Collection. 

How did you go about responding to peoples negativity and their own reactions to your work? 

I think you just take it in your stride. Louis has been like yes, we got this! He doesn’t let negativity get to him, which is such a good thing for me because I can be quite sensitive towards peoples opinions on my work. I think that when you believe in something like this project which came straight from our hearts, you’ve got to remember why you’re doing it—we saw the negativity as fuel, that we were doing a good thing and it gave us even more of a reason to get this book out there. 

That’s awesome. And I think it’s so important that we learn that from a young age—this idea of acceptance and being wholly your individual self, I think that’s the most important lesson for anyone to learn. 

And knowing that if you would’ve wanted something like this when you were younger, I think that’s a really important thing. If you can give that lesson or that knowledge to somebody else, like a little child that may be struggling or that doesn’t really know their sense of self yet—if you can help somebody then go for it! 

I think it’s important as well because it touches on different age groups—even though it is essentially a children’s book, you know, everyone can read this and get something from it. I think that’s such a beautiful thing. 

Exactly! A parent could sit down with their kids to read it, and point to all the different animals and colours, you could learn a lot from the book from just the pictures. Someone could learn to read from it because it’s quite a lengthy book. Or you could be our age-plus and still get something from it. I think it’s very adaptive to different ages. 

Tell me more what’s going on in your world. 

I’m enjoying doing my graphics because I’m being more selective with who I work with and if it’s aligned with my kind of style and if I like what they’re doing. I was getting a bit meh with all of the freelance work that I was doing...but I think that now, accepting the right jobs has been a really big step for me. Doing the work that I want to do. 

I’ve been doing quite a lot of commissioned little custom faces and I think the stories that have come along with it—I think that’s what I’m enjoying the most about doing what I do. I’ve been doing the little bodies and line drawings and things like that, [and] I feel like I’ve been capturing so much emotion through the pictures and the people that have been sending them to me. A girl that I work with, she gave me a photo of her dad and her when she was really little—I don’t really know her too well [but] I just felt a really big attachment to this [photo]. I took quite a bit of time to finish it off—longer than I usually do—but I just grew this attachment...and I was really nervous to send it to her, it was really bizarre. But when I sent it to her, she replied and said [how amazing it was] and I almost wanted to cry, and I messaged her on Father’s Day to see if she would be okay with me posting it and she replied with he would’ve loved it...To be a part of that, and to have given her this recreated photo, it makes me enjoy my work so much more. 

I then had this idea of putting peoples stories along with their pictures—if I was a writer, I’m not very good at writing. But yeah, I’d love to do a little write-up on each of the posts and the person that asked me to do their photos. There’s always a story behind why they’re doing it. 

I’ve got a few things on the horizon too which is nice... 

Am I allowed to know, or... 

My most passionate [project] at the moment is with my family actually. It usually is with my family, I love what they do! We’re doing self love packs. My sisters own a retail store (Darling Style Merchants) and we’re doing these packs—well, I’m not, I just created the packaging for them. I absolutely love their idea behind it. It’s all about—well, there’s one called Self Love and the other one is Stress Less; they’ve got little crystals in it and everything else for you to take care of yourself, like essential oils, affirmations. They’re something that I would love to purchase and something that I love and that I would buy for my friends. That has been such a nice project to work on because when you’re designing something to go with a product that you believe in then it...comes really naturally. So yeah, I’ve really been loving that. And obviously supporting my family has been really awesome—and power to the women, ya know! 

Let’s talk about the creators behind these amazing packs—your mum, two sisters and their business partner Tamar... 

Yeah, so after eight years we’ve just sold our family’s cafe. My blood sister and non-blood sister Tamar set it up close to eight years ago, as well as Darling, our retail store, which was about four years ago now. We’re going all online now—we’ve loved the shop and it’s been amazing, but it’s not where we are at anymore. There’s not enough foot traffic for a shopfront, so they’re going to go all online and that will allow them to still have the freedom to do other things instead of having somebody [at the shop] all the time...They’re doing a few markets and that’s where they’ll be launching and selling [the products], which is exciting! And then we’ll just see...now that we’re not tied down to the cafe or the store, who knows where we’ll go! 

The world is your oyster! Well, actually, it’s your whole family’s oyster! 

I love this idea of the self help and self love packs—I think it’s so important. You know, I talk about it time and time again, but it is just so important to take that time out for yourself and truly learn to love the skin that you’re in. Do you know the catalyst in them wanting to start creating these packs—what started the whole movement? 

For all the girls, they’re so caring. They’re all about empowering women, and they’re such gift-givers as well so I think it’s just a collaboration of all of them together and what they love. Charlotte’s obsessed with her essential oils, they make their own bath salts, and there’s tea and things like that. Their caring, nurturing selves are brought into these packs and you can really tell that they’re made from a place of love. 

Daisy, I want to talk about you— 

I love talking about me! 

I love talking about you too! A true diamond, my girl. Amongst a myriad of things, one thing I adore about you is that you are truly your own person and it speaks in volumes. We’re obviously living in a digital era, and I want to ask you if the presence of social media and unrealistic lifestyles does affect you from time to time? And, if so, how you cope with it? 

I’m one of those people that taps out a lot; I have my own space. I tend to not go too much on Instagram. I think, for the purposes of my work, I love publishing what I do; I love seeing what my friends and family are up to. But I think that when I’m in a funk or in a mood, I tend to space myself out quite a bit and I zone out a little bit because that’s just me. I do try and put myself first a lot, which sounds, I dunno—I feel like my mental health days are all the time. I wake up in the morning, have my little celery juice, I’m chillin’. My sisters always [comment on my life]—I’m slow. I do what I want; I just try and do things that make me really happy. I mean, there are off days for sure, but that’s when I tend to zone out a bit—smell some oils, chill, be freakin’ zen. Love a bit of Netflix. 

Also trying to be creative really helps me. If one thing’s not working out for me, I can move to [something else]. 

And I think being creative, that’s not only your outlet and your happy place, but that is your life, your career... I did pick up on you being mildly apprehensive to talk openly about this idea of loving yourself, why’s that? 

I don’t know, I probably shouldn’t be apprehensive to say it because I think it is really important, that’s what I do. I do love taking care of myself and also the people around me. People are always like you’re always happy, but I’m not. 

Everyone has their bad days. I have to admit, I’m very similar to you, I’m one of those people that everyone assumes is always happy and always in a good mood—except for my family, they know better. 

But I think it’s really important for girls—or everyone—of our generation to have the ability to express themselves the way that they need to, when they need to. And where you have the power to switch off your phone, and get out of Instagram, others don’t. I often find myself scrolling, at times feeling very vulnerable, and consequently getting down and out on myself. It’s a habitual thing. 

We are so social media-driven. I looked at my friends feed the other day and she was asking me all about these people that I’d never even heard of—and she’s like have you seen this person? Have you seen this person? And I had this realisation that no, I don’t. 

Were these people you knew, or famous people? 

Famous people, influencers. And she was saying look at her, I love her, look at this and, although I enjoyed looking at it with her, it made me realise that the people that I follow are more art-related, my family and friends, old school friends and a few Kardashians of course. It’s so funny—different people’s feeds and what they choose to follow. It obviously depends on the person and their interests but we can all use Instagram in many different ways. 

And what’s next on the horizon for Daisy Squires? 

I feel like something’s brewing. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m really ready for something—I just feel like something big is coming. I will let you know! 

World domination, maybe? 

Oh, absolutely. Me and you. 

We’re going to take on the world, sister! 

I really want to keep cracking on with the book; get it into schools, that’s my main thing right now. I’m going to be doing some collaborations with these guys, The Self Love Club—selling my work with them, doing little pop ups and stuff. So we’ll just see where that goes! I think I’m ready for a bigger movement. 

Now that we don’t have Parlor and Darling—they’ve served us such a great time; it’s given us all jobs and happiness and being able to be surrounded with each other all the time—but I don’t know what’s coming next! I don’t know what we’ll do. I don’t know if we’ll stay in hospitality—we’ll just see. But I think it’s so exciting that it is at that stage where we can discuss ideas and dreams. I’m obviously at an age now as well—because these business’ were obviously created whilst I was still at school—I feel like I can actually be somebody who puts in and I can be part of future projects. I love surrounding myself with my family, so I’m very excited. 

I think the thing I love most about The Squires is that everything you do is so family oriented, and you do everything with great love. You all genuinely love each other so much, and you want to get into these businesses together, and you want to constantly be around each other, loving and supporting each other—it really does resonate through the work that you do. I think it’s just really lovely. 

It is, I feel very grateful.